A new study from The University of Nottingham shows that nearly half of women who managed to stay off cigarettes during pregnancy went back to smoking within six months of giving birth.
In the research, published in the scientific journal Addiction, it was revealed that in studies testing the effectiveness of stop-smoking support for pregnant women, forty-three per cent of the women who managed to stay off cigarettes during the pregnancy went back to smoking within six months.
While not smoking during pregnancy is very important, there is an urgent need to find better ways of helping mothers stay of cigarettes afterwards.
A major global public health issue
Approximately 18,887 pregnant smokers in the UK (3% of all maternities) used NHS stop-smoking support in the financial year 2014/15.1,2 This represents a considerable investment.
Dr Matthew Jones, Assistant Professor in Health Economics in the School of Medicine and Heath Sciences at The University of Nottingham, and lead author of the study, says, “Smoking during pregnancy is a major global public health issue: a conservative estimate for the annual economic burden in the UK is £23.5 million and in the US $110 million.
“Our report reveals a wide gulf between what pregnant women need to quit smoking and what our healthcare services currently provide.”
The research team that produced the report is from The University of Nottingham and works as part of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies. The study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Programme Grants for Applied Research programme.
A full copy fo the report can be found here.
1 Health and Social Care Information Centre. Statistics of Women's Smoking Status at Time of Delivery: England Quarter 4, 2014/15. 2015.
2 Health and Social Care Information Centre. Statistics of NHS Stop Smoking Services, England - April 2014 to March 2015. 2015.
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